


Soup's Cold, But Your Arms Are Warm

by Blu_Bell



Series: Rubies, Azurites, and Other Precious Gems [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Manager!Thace, My LesbiLions are too cute, No Keith&Lance this time, Nothing too bad! Just a fuckboi thinking he's the shit, Ruby has an Anger Bag(tm), Slight sexual harrasment, Sorry Not Sorry, Thace and Ruby are friends almost siblings really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 10:11:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14494683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blu_Bell/pseuds/Blu_Bell
Summary: Ruby has a pretty bad, stressful day and in normal Ruby fashion she will deal with it alone. Too bad she forgot her girlfriend was going to come over to spend the weekend.





	Soup's Cold, But Your Arms Are Warm

**Author's Note:**

> So sorry this took so long! Any followers i had are probs off reading better things lol, but to those who still stayed i apologize for the wait and hopefully the next segment wont take another month to post. Happy reading!

Ruby couldn’t believe this. Of all the days this could've happened, of all times it actually did, why did it have to happen at 10 in the morning? In the produce aisle?? While she was restocking fucking cantaloupes?!

 

“How long ya goin keep those melons away from me honey?” The creep laughed at his own ill attempt at humor. Ruby had dealt with these kind of situations before, what else do you expect when you work at a diner at 3am? 

 

But this wasn't the diner, this wasn’t some group of college boys trying to sober up their plastered friend whilst giving her many apologies. This was a FUCKING GROCERY STORE! Apparently you shouldn’t stereotype when a creep decides to be a creep, it's apparently still a free country in that aspect. Ruby swallowed back a sigh, the easiest way to get rid of a douche canoe was tell him in the most obvious way possible how uninterested you are, delicately toeing the line between passive aggressive and aggressive aggressive. As much as Ruby would've loved to physically injure the dude, she still needed this job.

 

“Listen man, it's never going to happen, like ever. So, why don’t you just leave me alone, go get a bag a chips, go to register 3, and flirt with Candy instead.” Candy was kind of a bitch, but she was sneaky about it, no customer ever complained about her because she would actually convince them somehow that they were the stupid ones, because really they were. Candy would take one look at this dude and condescend him into wondering how he ever thought he could get with her. Ruby aspired to be like her one day.

 

“Aw, come on baby, what you think you’re too good for me? Am I not your type?” She stacked the last remaining troublesome fruit in her pyramid and turned to glare at this guy. She was this close to running him through with a fork lift.

 

“I have a job to do, so I suggest you stop bothering me before I report you for sexual harassment.” It was an empty threat, her manager didn’t come in for another hour, but he didn’t need to know that, so Ruby walked out of Produce and went to go reorganize the cereal aisle. But sadly he followed her. God, he was like a bad yeast infection, there was no getting rid of him.

 

“Hey, hey, I don't want any trouble, just your number sweet cheeks.”  _ This bish _ … He wore this cocky lame ass grin as if he really thought he could win this.

 

“Ok, listen up Yeast boy, I. Am. Not. In-ter-est-ed! And I never will be! I don’t date guys, I’m a lesbian!” Yeast boy’s grin faded and tried computing that information with his two half-dead brain cells.

 

“So...wanna have a threesome with my girlfriend and me instead?” Fuckboi grin back on. All Ruby could see was red.

 

“Hey, everything all right? Ruby?” They both turned and faced her manager, Thace. Thank the glittering Stars above, he came in early!

“Nah, we cool man, no problem here, none whatsoever.” Thace basically stared right through Yeast boy’s very being.

 

“Thank you, for your input... _ sir _ , but I believe my subordinate can speak for herself.” His tone, like damn! Ruby could practically feel the ice flying in Yeast boy’s direction, barely missing his genitalia, and foreshadowing that next time he will not miss.  _ Damn that’s was almost poetic, I need to write that down… _

 

“Ruby? Is this... _ boy _ , bothering you?” Ruby turned her back on Yeast boy and gave Thace a single, subtle nod.

 

“I see. Why don’t you wait for me in my office, I’ll meet with you shortly.” He turned the ice back on the stranger behind her. “ _ Sir, _ I will now escort you out, we have a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment in this establishment. We have the right to refuse service to anyone, and know if you come back, we  _ will _ call the proper authorities to escort you off the premises.” 

  
  


Ruby sat in the hard plastic chair in front of Thace’s desk, picking at the fraying strands coming out of the seams of her ugly green employee vest. It wasn’t long before Thace came in through the door, a sympathetic look on his face.

 

“I’m going to need you to fill out this report form so we can officially blacklist that creep from the store, Rubes.” Ruby nodded, still too irritated to say anything without practically shouting.

 

“I’m so sorry that this happened to you, Rubes, and company rules say you can take a couple of days off if you want to.” Ruby nodded again and lifted her head to finally meet Thace’s gaze.

 

“Yeah, please I just need a day, I don’t work on the weekend, but I really don’t think I can handle anymore customers today.” Thace said he understood and gave her the forms. She filled them out quickly, she really needed to go let out some steam before she had to go pick up Keith- Keith… yeah, she really needed to get Keith out of the house for a bit, he didn’t need to think she was angry at him or something

 

“Go. Take a calming bath, hit something. Hard. Whatever you need to feel better Rubes, tell Keith that maybe we can go fishing this weekend if you need any alone time!” Ruby gave him a real smile.

 

“I don’t know, he may not want to go if he can’t invite his best friend Lance.” Thace’s eyes widened and his smile grew in happy surprise.

 

“What? Really? My little Bladling has a friend! That’s great! Tell him he can come too! I want to meet him!” Ruby laughed. “I told you, don’t call him that, the last thing I need is for him to try to join a biker gang at the age 6, but thanks for being there for him Thace, there’s only so much I can do by myself.”

 

“Don’t mention it Rubes, now get outta here and I’ll see ya Monday.”

 

Ruby made it to her car and drove home to get a change of clothes and her ‘Anger Bag’, that’s not its actual name, but Azura came over one day, took one look in it and said,  _ “This is your Anger Bag isn’t it? I’m calling it your Anger Bag.”  _ She then wrote it in black marker and to this day Ruby faces that side of her bag away from the viewing public.  _ An hour to clear my head and then I’ll come back to shower cool off until the last possible second and go pick-up Keith...God, I hope I can find someone to look after him for a bit… _

 

Having changed and rechecked the items in her bag, she got back into her car and headed toward the community center.

  
  


Parking was fairly easy, she hadn’t been here this in early in the day in a long time, then again she hadn’t been this mad at someone since high school, full of stupid over opinionated children. But this guy… this guy couldn’t be forgotten anytime soon, let alone forgiven.

 

“Hey pretty lady! Haven’t seen you in a while,” The girl at the front desk said. Ruby gave her a tired smile.

 

“Hey Audrey, how’s Toby doing?” Audrey rolled her eyes.

 

“Ugh, if that boy keeps ignoring me I swear I’m gonna make him sleep outside. I feed him, I clean for him and what thanks do I get? Him snapping at me when I want snuggles! I swear he only wants anything to do with me when I bring home treats.” She pouted and crossed her arms.

 

Ruby giggled. “I guess he’s living the tortoise dream.” Audrey leaned her head in her hand and gave a faux-dreamy look. “Yup. He’s the love of my life…. Oh! Right, I’m working! Did you wanna check something out?”

 

“Just a racquetball and an empty room, please.” “Coming right up!” After saying goodbye Ruby headed down to the giant empty rooms, four blank white walls towering over her.

 

Back in high school Ruby wasn’t an extremely active student, the things she did end up doing was usually because Azura tricked her into it, or Amber guilt-tripped her, or Esme blackmailed her… wow, she actually ended up doing a lot of things during high school. Either way there was nothing she actually did by her own volition, except this.

 

She was never an official part of any of the teams, she wasn’t a very good team player and couldn’t control her own strength, but it was either this or take a humiliating gym class with a square dancing unit...ew. Tennis, badminton, racquet ball, if it was possible to bounce an object off the wall Ruby did it. It wasn’t long before the coach made her help out with drills, making the girls exercise their reflexes and such. And not to brag, but their school made state finals everytime. And won.

 

But after four years of constant conditioning and sporadic aggression, well, it's not something you can just quit, especially when it’s working so well. And that’s how she found herself bouncing the rubber ball against the floor before imagining Yeast boy’s face on the opposite wall. She raised her racquet and her anger reignited as she tossed the ball in the air.

 

_ Pack! _

 

It was the most satisfying sound.

 

The ball came back at her at lightning speed, but she was prepared and immediately volleyed it back into the wall, aiming at an angle so it would bounce on the floor before returning. In Ruby’s mind it was an extreme game of “Don’t Drop the Balloon”, and if you dropped it, you died. It gave the adrenaline rush she already had a little bit more of a punch, twisted her guts and kept her more alert to where the ball would bounce from. 

 

The ball was now rebounding from all four walls, if there was a camera, it would look like the ball was alive and trying to kill her. She had been doing this for about ten minutes straight, five more and then she would take a break.

 

Yeast boy’s perverted smile came back into her mind. The way his eyes trailed over her like she was kind of object, a pretty little exotic toy…

 

_ “URGH!” _

 

Something plastic and only made to star in guys’ fantasies, she wasn’t even a person! Just a glorified sex doll that could make out with other girls. 

 

She could barely comprehend that she was screaming her frustrations with every swing she made.

 

Something hot.  _ Pack. _ Something fuckable.  **_Pack._ ** An object.  **_Pack!_ ** An oddity.  **_PACK!_ **

 

Something dirty…

 

The tears fell faster than she thought possible. Sobs wracked through her and she collapsed in the middle of the floor, disregarding the fact that she could get nailed by a speeding ball of rubber.

 

Her arms wrapped around her stomach, she was a mess, hot tears running over her cheeks, sweat going down her neck and continuing down her back. She tried wiping her eyes on the shoulder of her soaked T-shirt, but still ended up having the salt from her sweat burn her retinas.

 

Old memories resurfaced from the back part of her mind, usually hidden, but always around to mock her. The bullying, the straight out hatred her old school showed her, it had left deep scars. She was glad they moved…

 

Ruby pulled her knees up to her chin. Breathing gently in and out. They had moved, she had a more supportive friend group, one that would go to Pride with her, understood her fears, loved her because she was her. And she loved them back… And...and she fell in love with someone special…

 

A small smile spread upon her face. She wasn’t fully ok, not yet, but she would be. Remembering that she wasn’t alone anymore, that she had people who cared for her, helped.

 

She wiped away the tears with the back of her hand noticing that the clock on the wall said she’d been going at it non-stop for 30 minutes. Huh, she beat her record. She stood up, retrieving the ball from the far corner and gathering up her bag. She washed up her face in the bathroom, checked back in the ball with Audrey, and left to finally take a shower and get Keith, definitely get him a babysitter, but only for tonight, tomorrow she needed to be Keith’s mother, and no fuckboi was going to take away a happy childhood from her baby boy. 

  
  


Sweaty and tired and just a bit more at peace, Ruby lead herself into her apartment building. Tossing her keys on the table and dropping her bag by the front door.

 

“Heeeeeey! Wat up girlfriend!” Ruby jumped at the sudden voice, she turned and saw Azura hanging off the entryway to the living room/kitchen.

 

“Sweet Mother of all Things Gay! What the fuck are you doing here? You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

 

Azura giggled. “Oh stop it,  you knew I was coming here after I dropped off the kids at Rosa’s house.” Ruby stood there confused.

 

“What do you mean ‘dropped them off’, they don't get out for a few more hours.” she said looking at the microwave clock to verify.

 

The smile on Azura’s face dropped, but then quickly started laughing. “Oh my god! I can’t believe you forgot!”

 

“Forgot what!?” Ruby could feel the annoyance coursing through her, she really didn’t want to play guessing games right now.

 

Azura snickered through her words.”Today was a half day remember? We said we were going to spend it together,” Azura stepped forward, draping her arms over Ruby’s shoulders. “Just the two of us.” She ended whispering.

 

Ruby remembered this conversation now, Keith was going to spend the night at Lance’s house so she and Azura could have the apartment to themselves. They were excited about it, Azura hadn’t come over for weeks now, having to grade papers and finding better ways to entertain her students and still secretly teach them. Ruby would have been thrilled to see her girlfriend after remembering all this. But. After all that happened today, she really didn’t want to be around anybody for awhile.

 

“Hey, are you ok? You’re making a face. And you’re really sweaty.” Ruby looked up in her girlfriends eyes. Shit, she was worrying her now.

 

“No! No, I’m fine. I just-” She sighed. “It’s- it’s been a long day. I have to take a shower and think about some stuff. Alone. If you don’t mind.” She pulled away from Azura, she really didn’t want to get her mixed up in all this. As much as she would have rathered stayed with her and try to enjoy her company, Ruby knew she wasn’t a great actor, she would ruin the good mood between them, maybe even hurt Azura’s feelings by not telling her about it. At least this way she could figure out her feelings alone, like she intended to do all along.

 

“Oh. Alright, I’ll be out here then! I was going to procrastinate grading essays, but I guess I could do them now.” She gave out a strained laugh. 

 

Ruby almost objected, she really needed to be alone right now, but the guilt filled her brain as she saw the pain in Azura’s eyes. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t know what happened, it wasn’t her fault Ruby forgot she was coming and she felt crappy enough to just agree with Azura and make her way to her room.

  
  


Azura just stared at Ruby’s retreating figure. Shit. What happened? Did she do something wrong? She really wanted to talk about it, but the look on Ruby’s face… She had a tiring day, maybe she’s just stressed? Yeah, that’s probably it, but Azura couldn’t help the evil little voice in her head telling her she’d done something wrong. She knew that was stupid, she hadn’t seen Ruby in weeks, they texted everyday for hours, and nothing seemed amiss. But still… none of this was giving her reassuring feelings. She decided to distract herself, it usually helped to ignore the voices in her head and after and hour or so they would be forgotten. With that nice thought she sat down on the sofa and dug out some papers from her bag.

 

_ She just needs a little time, no sweat. _

 

After the third one it was physically painful to read some of these kids’ essays, what did they teach them last year? How to  _ not  _ use commas correctly!? And the redundancy! Every sentence sounded almost exactly the same. She let out an exasperated sigh. It’s ok, she’ll just have to add in an extra review session in her lesson, which means pushing back the due date for their Vocabulary worksheets. An extra day of studying, hopefully they’ll use it. She held back a laugh, they probably won’t.

 

At that moment her stomach started to growl. She was expecting Ruby to go out with her and get some take out or something, then she was going to somehow persuade her to binge watch one of her favorite shows instead of reruns of Seinfeld, it was a good show, but ever since the main guy voiced a digital bee the novelty was lost on her. Her original plan was to watch her least favorite show so that halfway through all the cuddling, that they most definitely would be doing, they would eventually just start making out on the couch.

 

It was the perfect plan, win-win on either side. But, now Ruby was locked in her room, with no actual time-frame of when she was coming out…

 

_ Maybe she really wants to avoid you…  _ It was stupid. The voice obviously didn’t know Ruby as much as she did. But damn was it easy to believe its ugly persuasive little quips. For just a second Azura let herself believe that Ruby really didn’t want her here, that maybe Ruby finally realized she could get somebody totally better, she didn’t have to settle for plain old Azura…

 

Azura forcefully shook her head. She smacked her palms against the desk and stood up.  _ No. there’s no point in thinking this way.  _ If Ruby really was tired of her, she would have said so, she was too straightforward to just keep leading Azura on. This was their only bad day, every other time felt good, felt wonderful. This was just one of the first obstacles they had to overcome as a couple, that’s all. Everyday isn't always a walk in the park.

 

With that burst of pivotal positivity, she went to search the kitchen for questionable ingredients that, cohesively, could create something edible. In the pantry/corner she found bulk packages of both cereal and instant-ramen, two different bottles of hot sauce, three tomatoes, an opened box of cheeseless macaroni-and-cheese and half a loaf of bread. In the fridge was milk, a head of lettuce, an onion, whipped cream, and literally only an inch of cheese. The freezer held frozen peas, and probably a months worth of different frozen dinners. Okay...damage control time. She took out a random pot Ruby had under the sink and put some oil on low heat.

 

Cooking was one of the best ways Azura could avoid any problems dragging around her head, She wasn’t that great, so it took extreme focus and concentration to not burn down the building, or remember that she was cutting vegetables and could’ve lost an eye. Most of the time she stayed alive thanks to Rosa cooking too much on ‘accident’ and giving her the leftovers.

 

But, today needed distraction. Enough to make all her bad thoughts go away, and to just be there for her girlfriend when she needed her. It was the least she could do. Azura could not stress enough how grateful she was for Ruby, for being able to have Ruby as a constant in her life. It was more than she was ever expecting. She wasn’t going to blow it by believing the evil words her brain came up with, no. Until Ruby herself screams in her face that she never wants to see her again, will she even think that she was not wanted.

 

She smelled something burning. “Shit! Oh. Nevermind it was just the oil, phew.” She quickly cut the onions and added them to the pot. Now was not the time have an existential crisis, it was cooking time.

 

After nearly cutting the tips of her fingers twice, and almost leaving the macaroni to crisp a little too much, Azura had finally finished and stirred the pot of soup proudly. She poured out enough for two bowls, placing them on a cutting board for easy access, and carefully made her way through the darkened hallway to her girlfriend’s room. She gave the door a quick rap and stepped back waiting.

 

“Ruby? I know you said you wanted to be alone- and that’s fine!- but I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t starve yourself to death.” She waited hearing nothing come from the other side of the door. With slight trepidation Azura slowly turned the knob anyway, if Ruby was sleeping maybe she could leave the bowl nearby for later. The tell tale lump in the bed proved Azura’s suspicions so she tiptoed her way to the side table. Ruby had previously left the lamp on, washing the room in a faint golden glow, and not to be super creepy, but Ruby looked gorgeous in it. Her hair was still wet from the shower, the fading red strands still bright at the tips, her lips were pouted open from sleep, and her cheeks were rosy...and stained with tear tracks.

 

Azura frowned. Whatever had happened to Ruby today must have been horrible, she almost felt guilty for thinking it was something she did and making the problem all about her.  _ Shut up. It could still very well be something you did, don’t get cocky. _ Once again pushing back the thought, Azura noticed the small glimmer of a tear still clinging to Ruby’s eyelash. Acting on impulse, she put down her makeshift tray, and sat at the edge of the bed to wipe it. Using that tear Azura started melting away the salt that had stayed on Ruby’s cheek, and even after it was gone she continuously kept caressing her girlfriend’s face.

  
  


It was the constant rubbing that made Ruby finally wake up.

 

“Azura? What are you doing?” Her voice still sounded muffled with sleep and the little slurs were adorable.

 

Azura just wiped her eyes with the pad of her thumb and smiled sadly.

 

“I know you said you needed to think by yourself, and I’m still prepared to let you do that, but I can’t help but want to stay with you and try anyway I can to make you feel better. And seeing how bad today has messed with you, really makes me feel useless.”

 

Ruby’s eyes bugged out a bit, she sat up in bed, and set her hand over the one Azura had on her cheek.

 

“Oh, sweetheart...I’m sorry I didn’t-” Azura placed her other hand on her cheek as well and squished them both together.

 

“Hey. Don’t be sorry, you’re allowed to have bad days, and you are allowed to deal with them however way you want, me feeling pathetic is not your fault, that’s on me.”

 

She smiled lopsidedly. “Don’t worry I’ll get over it. If this is what you need I’ll support you all the way.”

 

All Ruby could do was stare in amazement. How did she land herself such a beautiful, selfless person like Azura? Seriously, how did this happen!?

 

Azura smiled gently at Ruby’s speechlessness, she gave her a quick peck to her forehead and made her way to stand.

 

“Well, I’m gonna go back to grading, if you need anything ju-” She was almost halfway around the bed when she felt a tug against her sleeve. Looking back she saw Ruby with half her hair hiding her face.

 

“ _..ou.. _ ” she mumbled out looking down into her sheets.

 

“What was that darling?” Ruby jerked her head up and made eye contact, her face completely flushed.

 

“I just want you… Stay with me, please?”

 

Azura just nodded and let Ruby tug her back to the bed, they stayed there curled up together, legs intertwined, and Ruby’s head resting underneath Azura’s jaw, for hours.

 

Azura didn’t pressure Ruby to talk, she would tell her if and when she was ready, it was enough that she gave her this small part to help in her mental healing and Azura would carry the task dutifully. She knew Ruby, better than the voices in her head did, and right now this was what Ruby needed. She could feel Ruby’s breathing begin to slow and her own eyelids started to feel heavy.

 

“Is it too early to say ‘I love you’?”

 

That woke Azura right back up. She looked down at her girlfriend, curled up like a kitten, eyes closed, but the stain on her cheeks let Azura know she had meant every word of what she said.

 

Azura just pecked her hairline. “You always have to beat me to the punch, don’t you?”

 

Ruby let out a small snort.

 

“I love you too.”


End file.
